What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.

Christopher Hitchens (1949 - 2011) was an Anglo-American author and journalist. His books made him a prominent public intellectual and a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. He was a columnist and literary critic at Vanity Fair, Slate, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry and a variety of other media outlets. He was named one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Britain's Prospect.

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A very worthwhile watch... Hitchens confronts a real foul-mouthed playground bully type who would rattle any lesser debater with his ferocious and unceasing ad hominem attacks. Hitchens keeps cool, never loses his sense of humor or his faculty for finding the flaw, noting the irony and dispelling the fallacy. He had to know he was setting foot in enemy territory by debating Donohue in a Catholic church.

Very instructive if you wish to be prepared to argue with someone who mainly throws rocks and will concede no point - you must win the audience. Hitchens manages to elicit significant tracts of applause from Donohue's constituents.

Sample some other YouTube videos with Donohue in them - old age has not mellowed him at all. I'd say Hitchens handled him as well as anyone could have.

CH wrote up a review of the debate for Free Inquiry's Summer 2000 edition, describing his experience of "a real whiff of old-style Francoism, rather as I imagine it would be to argue with Patrick Buchanan when he was on acid."

I agree with the prior comments and would add that the priest "moderator" failed miserably in making no effort to curb Donahue's vitriol even after boasting that the debate's namesakes conducted themselves with "civility and gentlemanly charm" and never uttered a single word in "acrimony or animus."